


Remain Standing

by voleuse



Category: Eureka
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-04
Updated: 2008-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remain Standing

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers. Title and summary adapted from Juan Ramon Jimenez's _I Am Not I_.

Allison kept her diplomas on the top shelf of her closet. Along with her B.S. in Political Science, she had a Ph.D. in neuroscience and an M.D. The degrees looked good on her resumé when she applied to the Department of Defense, but here in Eureka, they weren't worth much more than pocket change.

She did enjoy, however, meeting up with newly-recruited scientists. Male or female, their initial response was always the same--a quick scan over her outfit, tailor-made to scream _military bureaucrat_, then a spot-check at her hands and pockets, usually devoid of clipboards, PDAs, or computational devices. She could measure the dip in their voices as they started talking down to just another suit, and once in a while, she leapfrogged over their explanations and pinpointed the inevitable flaws in their research proposals.

When new military officers came to Eureka, she beat them in hand-to-hand, too.

*

The first time she met Nathan, she was sitting in the third row of a lecture hall. It was an assignment, and one of her earlier ones--assessing Stark's suitability for a top-secret facility.

He caught up with her after the presentation and asked her to join him for drinks. She smiled and accepted, and pretended she was flattered.

She told her superiors Stark wasn't a good fit for the program, and it took them four years to decide she was wrong. Ten years later, she still wasn't convinced.

*

Sometimes her friends ask Allison why she went the government route--why, instead of staying in research, she chose to don the jacket, the badge, and the sensible shoes.

She couldn't say why she made that choice, all those years ago, but she knew why she stayed with it now. She had seen the look in the eyes of scientists lost in their experiments, delving into theory without thought for the consequences. She had seen what came of the abstract.

Late-night visits to the morgue. Yellow tape across porches and driveways. Death certificates and confused beneficiaries.

When she came home every night, Allison kissed Kevin on the forehead, and she didn't regret a thing.


End file.
